Offshore Finds From the Bronze Age in North‐western Europe: The Shipwreck Scenario Revisited

Abstract

This article challenges received thinking relating to the interpretation of Bronze Age finds from the seabed in the waters of northwestern Europe, especially the North Sea and Channel area. Metal objects recovered from the sea are traditionally presumed to be the result of shipwrecks. As such, their interpretation as casual, if unfortunate loss is unquestioned. However, abandoning the shipwreck scenario as a remnant of the 'sacred vs profane' heuristic, it is suggested that offshore finds could provide insight into deliberate Bronze Age maritime practice, rather than misadventure. Certain patterning in the data of offshore finds, including affinities with hoards on terra firma, urges another interpretive frameworkthat of considering the sea as a place for deposition. This appeared to be the case particularly in regions which experienced an intensity of maritime interaction, such as the Channel area during the later Bronze Age. From this it is hypothesized that rather than being considered outside the Bronze Age social realm, the sea, especially in the MBA to earlier LBA in the Channel area, was incorporated into Bronze Age cosmology in similar ways to other zones in the landscape.

The Rochelongue underwater site and the coastal mobility in West Languedoc (France) during the transit from Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age

“…This interpretation is in line with other sites that shows evidences of metallic artefacts submerged in the coastal or riverine environment and interpreted as votive. This is the case for sites dated in Bronze Age as the ones found at Great Britain (Samson 2006) or Spain (Priego 1995).…”

Plankboat skeuomorphs in Bronze Age logboats: a Scandinavian perspective

“…Van de Noort 2011: 60–61). Samson (2006) has challenged the traditional idea that such finds reflect accidentally lost objects and shipwreck sites, and has suggested that they are votive offerings, which actively involve the sea as a cultural landscape, and thus reflect the maritime practice of the Bronze Age. A more maritime approach to Bronze Age research has evolved in recent years in Scandinavia (see e.g.…”

Los depósitos de La ría de HueLva: en busca deL barco perdido

“…Así pues, la acumulación de deposiciones rituales, algunas de cierta antigüedad, unida al propio marco natural (una zona liminal, a caballo entre los ríos y el mar) debieron desempeñar un papel importante en la construcción del paisaje sagrado del estuario onubense. En este sentido, resulta interesante considerar la reciente propuesta de Alice V. M. Samson (2006) -formulada a partir de un análisis de hallazgos encontrados en el Mar del Norte y en el Canal de La Mancha-que defiende la idea de considerar a las aguas marinas como lugares de deposición votiva, con el mismo rango que otras deposiciones fluviales y terrestres. La autora argumenta que el mar y este tipo de amortizaciones estaban incorporados a la cosmología de la Edad del Bronce, de un modo similar al que lo estaban otros lugares del paisaje (Figura 4).…”